Darlin' Eileen
by LynstHolin
Summary: Eileen Prince's life takes an unexpected turn, due to Tobias Snape.


July 1959

Eileen Prince stomped down the sidewalk while scowling ferociously, her thick eyebrows drawn together. "Stupid. Idiot. Moron." Passersy gave her wide berth as she swung her arms as if she was about to slug someone. "How could you have done such a pin-headed thing?"

"I don't envy the bugger that's got her in such a state. He's really going to get it," a man said when she was safely past him.

But it wasn't a man who had Eileen so angry she could spit fire. "I'm not some besotted teenaged girl, and he's no Rock Hudson. How could I have got so carried away? I'm pathetic! Put me in a sack and drown me like an unwanted puppy!"

"Eileen?" One of her neighbors was matching her stride, looking worried. "Are you all right?"

"I'm off to church," Eileen replied, speeding up and leaving the woman behind. St. Carmela's, named after the only saint who had also been a witch, came into view. Slipping through the Muggle-repelling wooden door, she was pleased to see that no one else was there for confession and that she was able to slip into the booth immediately. "Blessmefatherforihavesinned. I'm pregnant."

"Ah, you do realize that being with child is not itself a sin? It's how you got that way."

The light humor in the priest's voice set Eileen's teeth on edge. She had hoped to get the old, perpetually crabby priest, not this Irish pup fresh from the seminary. "Yes, yes. Just give me my penance."

"Will the father marry you?"

_Get your arse out of my life and back to Galway_, she thought. "I- I don't know."

"Because if he won't, I know of a lovely place for unwed mothers just outside of Cloch na Ron. You can spend your confinement in private, and the child will go to a good Catholic home. No one will know what happened."

Oh, yes, that would be lovely, thirty years old and shut away with a bunch of silly children who had been knocked up at school mixers.

"Those are the only choices you have. You know that a child born out of wedlock has a hard time of it, and so does his mother."

Of course she bloody knew. The children bullied, their mothers considered scarlet women... Eileen had grown up in this neighborhood. She knew as well as anyone how hard its inhabitants were on those who strayed from the straight and narrow. "Give me my penance. I know it will be more than a few Hail Marys."

"The father, who is he? Is he Catholic? Is he a wizard?"

Eileen stood up and threw open the confessional door. "I'll be back when Father Docherty is in."

...

"So you're back. Shall I let the home know that you're coming?"

"You again," Eileen said in her surliest tone. She just wanted her bloody penance already.

"Father Docherty is indisposed, I'm afraid. The home has a program to help schoolgirls keep up with their education while they're confined. Perhaps you could help the nuns tutor them."

"Let me talk to a woman who has given away her child, first, and then I'll think about it."

The priest was silent for a moment. "Why is that?"

"I want to know if I'll regret doing the same."

"Of course you won't! You won't ever regret doing the right thing, the Christian thing. You'll be making some childless couple very happy."

"And what about my happiness?"

"The Lord gave up his only Son."

"Yes, well, he got him back later, didn't he?" The priest went silent again, probably appalled at her flippant answer. "Would I know who got my baby?"

"Oh, no, that's completely confidential. The adoptive parents much prefer it that way."

"Why? How is the mother to know that her baby is going to a good home?"

"The church ensures that-"

"I won't give my baby to strangers! Give me one good, rational reason why I shouldn't know! Why don't the adoptive parents want the mother to know? Tell me now!" The priest stuttered a non-answer. "Tell. Me. Now!"

"W-well, they wouldn't want the mother to try to..." His voice trailed off as he realized what he was about to say.

"They wouldn't want the mother to try to take the baby back, because, of course, very few women would willingly give up the child they gave birth to."

"A good Christian woman wants to do the right thing! A good Christian woman is happy to make sacrifices!" the priest huffed.

"What would you know about it? Are you a woman? How many babies have you had?"

"This isn't about me, it's about you!"

"You are absolutely right. And I have decided, for myself, that I am keeping my baby one way or another." She got up and walked out of the confessional with her head high. "Good day. I'm off to perform my penance."

"I haven't even given it to you!" the priest shouted after her, but Eileen just kept going. Back out on the street, she pointed herself toward the pub that Tobias Snape frequented, shoving through the after-work crowd.

Eileen did not love Tobias. He was just a man who didn't mind taking an unlovely spinster off the shelf and playing with her for a while. What his reaction to the idea of impending fatherhood would be, Eileen had no idea. Or what he would think of her being a witch. She had a feeling it was going to be a long evening. "You've not even quickened, and you're already a trouble maker," she said, touching her still-concave stomach. The door of the Lion's Head pub was right in front of her, and she knew that when she pulled it open, Tobias would be in his usual spot, right next to the jukebox. Eileen took a deep, steadying breath and put her hand on the doorknob.

...

...

For those of you not knowledgeable about the Fifties: Rock Hudson was widely believed to be the handsomest movie star of the era. Unwed motherhood was a life-ruiner for a woman, to a degree that can be hard to imagine these days. A woman unmarried by the age of thirty was considered an 'on the shelf' spinster, someone to be pitied and an object of derision.


End file.
